 miscarry'd. This they all engag'd to do, and
entred into Writings or Covenants to do so; and I made a formal Will, disposing
of my Plantation and Effects, in Case of my Death, making the Captain of the
Ship that had sav'd my Life, as before, my universal Heir, but obliging him to
dispose of my Effects as I had directed in my Will, one half of the Produce
being to himself, and the other to be ship'd to England.
    In short, I took all possible Caution to preserve my Effects, and keep up my
Plantation; had I used half as much Prudence to have look'd into my own Intrest,
and have made a Judgment of what I ought to have done, and not to have done, I
had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an Undertaking, leaving all the
probable Views of a thriving Circumstance, and gone upon a Voyage to Sea,
attended with all its common Hazards; to say nothing of the Reasons I had to
expect particular Misfortunes to my self.
    But I was hurried on, and obey'd blindly the Dictates of my Fancy rather
than my Reason; and accordingly the Ship being fitted out, and the Cargo
furnished, and all things done as by Agreement, by my Partners in the Voyage, I
went on Board in an evil Hour, the first of September, 1659, being the same Day
eight Year that I went from my Father and Mother at Hull, in order to act the
Rebel to their Authority, and the Fool to my own Interest.
    Our Ship was about 120 Tun Burthen, carried 6 Guns, and 14 Men, besides the
Master, his Boy, and my self; we had on board no large Cargo of Goods, except of
such Toys as were fit for our Trade with the Negroes, such as Beads, bits of
Glass, Shells, and odd Trifles, especially little Looking-Glasses, Knives,
Scissars, Hatchets, and the like.
    The same Day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the Northward
upon our own Coast, with Design to stretch over for the Affrican Coast, when
they came about 10 or 12 Degrees of Northern Latitude, which it seems was the
manner of their Course in those Days. We had very good Weather, only excessive
hot, all the way upon our own Coast, till we came the Height of Cape St.
Augustino, from whence keeping farther off at Sea we lost Sight of Land, and
steer'd as if we was bound for the Isle Fernand
